The aim of this study is to examine the role of achievement goal orientations of teacher candidates from different departments in the Faculty of Education in determining motivation and learning strategies, and to investigate whether the achievement goal orientations, motivation, and learning strategies of English Language Teaching (ELT), Elementary School Teaching (EST), and Physical Education teacher (PET) candidates differ according to gender variable. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 126 teacher candidates, including 28 female and 12 male English teacher, 31 female and 11 male Elementary School Teaching and 18 female and 26 male Physical Education teachers selected using convenient sampling method. The research data were collected through the Achievement Goal Orientations Scale (AGOS) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), along with a Personal Information Form. Two-way ANOVA was used to determine whether there were differences in achievement goal orientations, motivation, and learning strategies according to the gender of the participants. The analysis revealed that when teacher candidates were examined according to gender, female teacher candidates scored the highest averages in achievement goal orientations and motivation strategies, whereas male teacher candidates scored the highest in learning strategies. When teacher candidates were examined according to their departments, it was found that Elementary School Teaching department had the highest average scores in achievement goal orientations and motivation strategies, while English teaching department had the highest scores in learning strategies compared to other departments. The main effects of gender and departments were found to be significant when examining whether the levels of achievement goals differed based on gender and departments. While there was no significant difference between gender and motivation strategies, the interaction effect of departments was found to be significant. In terms of learning strategies, significant differences were found between gender, departments, and learning strategies. However, the interaction effect was not significant.

Achievement goal, motivation, learning strategies